Editorial snapshots from the nation's press

Congress has long abdicated its constitutional authority with respect to the nation's numerous and ever-expanding wars abroad.

It was welcome news, then, to learn that Sens. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., and Tim Kaine, D-Va., have put forward a new Authorization for Use of Military Force for consideration. At the very least, the offering gives Congress a long-overdue opportunity to talk about America's wars and perhaps even contemplate whether the United States should continue any of those efforts.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Congress rushed to pass an AUMF that granted the executive branch the authority to order military action against those responsible for the attacks. Unfortunately, since then, the AUMF has been used to justify American military action in countries and against groups that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, with little congressional oversight.

The proposed AUMF, while appreciated as a starting point for conversation, regrettably does nothing to rein in America's perpetual state of war. The AUMF authorizes military action against al-Qaeda, the Taliban and the Islamic State, as well as at least five "existing associated forces": al-Shabab in Somalia, the Haqqani Network in Afghanistan, al-Qaeda in Syria, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (in northern Africa).

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The AUMF also permits the president to add new groups to the AUMF, as well as new countries where operations can be conducted, beyond Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia and Yemen, though it does provide for congressional review for doing so.

While there are elements of the new AUMF that might be an improvement over the 2001 AUMF, in totality, what the proposed new AUMF does is keep the United States engaged in wars in at least half a dozen countries against an ever-expanding number of groups, with no sunset provisions or geographical limitations.

After 17 years of perpetual war, it is time we reconsider our wasteful interventionism abroad and bring the troops home.

—Orange County Register

Trump needs a good reason to dump DACA

A federal judge last week dealt the severest blow yet to the Trump administration's small-minded attempt to deport young adults brought illegally to the United States by their parents.

U.S. District Judge John D. Bates, of Washington state, ruled that the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program not only must remain in place, but that the administration must also resume accepting new applications. He stayed his decision for 90 days.

It's the third judicial smackdown to Trump's efforts to rescind the program — which President Obama created by executive order in 2012 — and deport those it shields, called DREAMers. One would hope the Trump administration would have gotten the message by now that his efforts are misguided. But don't bet on it.

In recent months, the DREAMers' struggle to stay in the United States has been teetering on a precipice. But Bates' ruling pulled them back from the brink — for a while.

Bates called the push to rescind DACA "arbitrary and capricious." He nailed it.

The federal judge noted that the Department of Homeland Security canceled DACA, alleging that the immigration protection program is "illegal," but said it did so without explaining how it came to that conclusion. Bates gave the department 90 days to better explain its position. DHS will have to work overtime to come up with a persuasive case.

If DHS fails to do so, the judge said, then it "must accept and process new as well as renewal DACA applications."

This not only is welcome news for the estimated 690,000 DREAMers. It also injects some needed common-sense into this country's immigration system, itself too arbitrary and capricious.

Bates is to be commended for restraining a process whose consequences would needlessly upend so many lives. The Trump administration should reconsider its decision to end DACA and take the lead in finding a just and humane solution to the dilemma these young people face. It's a dilemma not of their own making.

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